The National Assembly of Venezuela in session. Photo: Local10/File photo.
The National Assembly of Venezuela, together with the majority of the country’s political parties, is holding a series of working groups and discussions in order to reform the set of laws that regulate political and electoral activities in the country.
Both of the major parties involved in the discussions, as well as smaller parties participating in the initiative, represent the plurality encompassing Chavismo and the opposition. Notably, some groups that have electoral cards and make up the far-right Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) decided not to be part of the proposal.
The president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, has stated that within the deliberations, the need to address legislation on specific matters has arisen, such as the case of the financing of parties and groups of voters. As a result, one of the bills under discussion is the Organic Law of Electoral Processes and the Law of Political Parties, Public Meetings, and Demonstrations.
The name given to this working-mechanism between parliamentarians and political parties is simply “dialogue between parties.” However, these discussions have been opened to a new stage of consultations and contributions from various sectors of society.
“Political parties, organizations, social movements, academics, universities, communal councils,” Rodríguez listed out, “that is to say that everyone can give their contribution and opinion.” He also announced that through the intensive work of these groups, they hope to present the newly designed legal instruments by December 15.
All of this arises from needs accumulated over the last few years, in particular due to the vulnerabilities of the political system and the ecosystem of parties that operate in the country. Venezuela has dealt with ongoing imperial regime change operations, led by political operatives, elected officials, and parties that have taken advantage of the guarantees of the political system to perpetrate unconstitutional acts, backed by the imperial interests of the US and its allies. The list of examples is very long, but among the most relevant cases we can mention:
- In 2002, various party leaders, governors, mayors, and deputies had known roles in the April coup d’état.
- During the color revolutions (guarimbas) of 2014 and 2017, various political leaders participated as organizers of political street violence.
- The opposition deputies elected for the 2015-2020 period in the National Assembly were held in contempt of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), promoted an institutional coup, formalized the request for foreign sanctions against the country, and illegally swore in the then-deputy Juan Guaidó as “interim president” with external support, coordination, and encouragement from the US entity.
- Party leaders plotted failed rebellions such as “Operation Freedom” in April 2019, and actions with mercenaries and paramilitaries such as “Operation Gedeón” in 2020.
Despite this chain of events, these political parties and many of their leaders remain active in Venezuelan political life, and some have even been elected to public office due to loopholes existing in current laws.
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Discussion Points
A breakdown of the reasons and points made within these discussion sessions can be analyzed as follows:
a) A party system that is in line with political reality
Rodríguez explained that the Law on Political Parties was initially drafted in 1965 and, despite having been reformed in 2010, some elements persist in it that are “obsolete, unclear, inconclusive, and even deceitful, in that certain people read the laws not to respect them but to see how they can evade them and how to take advantage of loopholes.”
The deputy called for a regularization of political organizations, through a process of adaptation of methods and authorization of electoral cards. He added that there is “a cemetery of political parties in the National Electoral Council” and even people who are “owners” of a party that they use to traffick influence, “like selling a card.”
The weaknesses that exist in the national political system are visible through several phenomena. One such example is that a part of the opposition is represented in a non-formalized block, the PUD, but they participate in the electoral field under an electoral card of a defunct coalition called the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).
Another phenomenon is the case of the organization Vente Venezuela, which is publicly called a “political party”, despite the fact that in legal terms, it has never formalized its registration with the National Electoral Council (CNE).
The new laws surrounding this would be with the aims of creating mechanisms so that the system of electoral positions and political formations are representative of the real political dynamics and is adjusted to new parameters of formalization, to avoid such existing weaknesses being exploited.
b) Regulate the functioning of organizations and their leaders
In Venezuela, there is a phenomenon in which various parties and leaders act in the “grey zone” of politics, using practices inside and outside of legal limits. There are numerous cases in which crimes are promoted or carried out, such as terrorism, street violence, and hatred, under the umbrella of the political freedoms enjoyed by political party organizations.
Jorge Rodríguez explained that some leaders “have gone so far as to claim fascism as a form of political participation.” He highlighted the fact that every time there is an election in Venezuela, a wave of violence is unleashed and “[the far-right opposition and their supporters] go out into the streets to kill people” if they do not win.
In the opinion of Rodríguez and other deputies of the Chavista bench, the actors that tend to place themselves outside the political framework should not enjoy the rights and guarantees offered by the framework itself.
This suggests that the new laws could establish mechanisms to expand the penalties and the list of political, administrative, and judicial offences to disqualify or prosecute, where necessary, actors and organizations that engage in certain practices.
Venezuelan electoral rules would also be adjusted in accordance with other new statutes, such as the Law against Fascism, Neofascism, and Similar Expressions.
In Venezuela, there have been repeated instances in which various agents of the Venezuelan opposition have had open participation in coups d’état (both failed and temporarily successful attempts), sedition, hate crimes, and apologia for neofascism and classism, but many have remained in the political ring and have been elected to office.
One of the most common frauds against the Constitution is the exercise of “politics” by subjects who have promoted sanctions and interventions against the country. These actions could be considered as acts of Treason to the Homeland, according to the Venezuelan Penal Code.
However, the judicialization of all political actors who have engaged in these practices entails several problems. The current contexts demand alternative mechanisms, such as other forms of penalizing leaders and parties, who could be excluded from political eligibility.
c) Update the legal framework according to new political realities
Rodríguez emphasized that legislative tasks go far beyond regulating political actors, and indicated that it is also necessary to regulate and legislate existing mechanisms of popular consultation, as well as the territorial organization for the distribution of positions.
In the debate, proposals have emerged for the use of digital voting tools for popular consultations or “online referendums”, either to exercise the government’s existing online infrastructure or for various modalities of referendum consultations, given that new technologies for personal use have not yet been integrated into the dynamics of voting.
Among other proposals that have emerged are gender parity for representative positions, the review of the system of awarding elected candidates by electoral quotient (the number of representative positions per electoral district), a second electoral round, and a criteria for the construction of a permanent electoral register.
In this debate, proposals have been put forward for the nomination of candidates to the National Assembly according to different sectors, given that the formation of seats in parliament is currently based solely on territorial criteria, without considering sectoral realities.
It is thus likely that the new laws will also consider mechanisms for the development of party activity in the country, since there are phenomena that are not even mentioned in current laws exploited by imperialists and the far-right opposition. One of them is the use of social networks and political-electoral propaganda mechanisms online, which lacks effective regulations within these legal frameworks.
The new rules are likely to govern the life of parties and organizations and will emphasize reducing the ambiguity of the work of some Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Venezuela, in accordance with the letter of the new Law of Supervision, Regularization, Action, and Financing of Non-Governmental Organizations and Related Organizations.
Various NGOs have functioned as indirect financing mechanisms for parties and political leaders, in particular for the imperialist goal of ‘regime change’ in the past. In addition, it could be considered that some NGOs function in fact as public opinion builders, and are subsidiaries to various political parties using practices which are diffuse and yet to be regulated.
Although elections have been held in Venezuela almost every year, this does not mean that the country has consistently updated its legal order to govern the electoral system, parties, and political participation.
There are topics of interest, methodologies, regulations, and experiences that have not been deployed due to the legislative lag in this matter. Most likely, the discussion that the National Assembly has organized will be the opportunity to bring about new elements to the ways of doing politics within this set of legal and regulatory instrumentation.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/BR/AU
